1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elongate member orienting machine. More particularly, the present invention relates to an elongate member orienting machine which orients elongate members according to their end portion characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
The production of needles involves many processes and different types of machinery in order to prepare quality needles from raw stock. These varying processes and machinery become more critical in the preparation of needles for use in humans or animals. Some of the processes involved in the production of surgical grade needles include, inter alia: straightening spooled wire stock; cutting needle blanks from the wire stock; providing a bore for receiving suture thread at one end of the blank; tapering or grinding points on the other end of the blank; fiat pressing a portion of the needle barrel to facilitate easier grasping by surgical instrumentation; and curving the blanks where curved surgical needles are desired. Conventional needle processing is, in large part, a labor intensive operation requiring highly skilled labor wherein extreme care must be taken to ensure that only the intended working of the needle is performed and the other parts of the needle remain undisturbed.
Additionally, in order to speed up production and enhance cost efficiency, it is desirable to process the needle blanks in large lots or batches. Automated machinery has been developed to perform a single operation, or even multiple operations, on a plurality of needle blanks. Such operations may include, for example, grinding, pressing, curving, etc.
During many of the automated processes, it is preferable to have all the needle blanks in a batch organized in the same orientation, such as, for example parallel and with tapered ends pointing in the same direction. Currently, needle blanks collected in random arrangement are generally sorted or oriented by hand according to their end face character.
Thus, there exists a need for a highly cost efficient apparatus and method for orienting needle blanks so that corresponding end faces of the blanks are oriented in the same direction after one end of the blank has been ground to form a taper.